DOT has issued a show cause order tentatively designating Polar Air Cargo for scheduled all-cargo service between the U.S. and Japan and beyond to one point. Polar's application beat out bids by Evergreen International Airlines, tentatively selected as backup carrier, American International Airways and Gemini Air Cargo. Under the April 1996 U.S.-Japan memorandum of understanding, the U.S. received authority to designate one new carrier to provide scheduled all-cargo service over a U.S.-Japan-beyond-point routing. The new U.S.
Vanguard Airlines has selected the Transport Repair and Maintenance Division (Tramco) of BFGoodrich Aerospace to conduct C-Checks on its eight 737s. The maintenance activity will be performed through April 1997.
Air Line Pilots Association members at the five Mesa Air Group carriers - Air Midwest, FloridaGulf, Liberty Express, Mountain West and WestAir - are working on a plan to consolidate the pilot groups into a single unit with uniform work rules and a common pay system and seniority list. ALPA made the announcement the day after Mesa said it is working on consolidating certain maintenance and flight operations under its corporate umbrella as it shifts from FAR Part 135 operations to FAR Part 121.
Virgin Express will launch its new livery Sept. 9 on service between Brussels and Madrid, Barcelona, Milan and Copenhagen. The low-cost carrier still faces resistance from Switzerland to bringing its low fares to Geneva, however. The Swiss government has yet to let the 737 airline inside its borders.
Dollar Rent A Car joined American's AAdvantage program Sunday, offering members a special introductory promotion. Dollar customers will receive 1,000 miles, double the normal rate, for every rental of at least two consecutive days beginning on a Sunday, Monday or Tuesday. The offer is good at each qualifying Dollar and EuroDollar location worldwide through Dec. 15.
Summary of U.S. National Carriers Systemwide Traffic, February 1996 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles Carriers (000) Change (Miles) (000) American Trans Air 543 40.46 1,470 797,831 Carnival 213 40.94 1,197 254,849 Hawaiian 434 18.64 693 300,706
Delta has completed the re-engineering of its cargo department it began last year, resulting in the redesign of four cargo products it expects to bring in $90 million a year in additional revenue. Its time-based products will be Dash, Delta Priority First Freight, Delta Priority Second Day and Delta Priority Third Day.
American Eagle and the Air Line Pilots Association could be the first in the airline industry to benefit from a problem-solving technique that will be pushed by the National Mediation Board. Collective bargaining talks at Eagle have begun in Arlington, Texas, employing an interest-based, consensual process used for years in other industries. An NMB spokesman said, "This is an area we are moving into," by reorganizing its resources to offer training on the process to airlines and unions.
Granted orally to Delta an exemption for two years to operate scheduled combination service between terminal points Las Vegas and Mexico City...Granted orally to American renewal of its exemption to provide scheduled combination service between Miami and Paris and between points in the U.S. and Taiwan, via Vancouver. American intends to operate the service under a code-share arrangement with Canadian Airlines International, without local traffic rights between the U.S. points and Vancouver, or between Vancouver and Taiwan.
DOT has made final its tentative award to Air 4000 of a certificate to operate scheduled interstate passenger service. Founded in October 1995, Air 4000 plans to operate low-cost service from its Myrtle Beach, S.C., base to Detroit, Philadelphia and Cleveland, using one 122-seat 737-200. The carrier said it will charge off-peak fares as low as $79 and peak fares up to $139 (DAILY, Jan. 8).
British Airways said it will end service to several Middle Eastern cities and sign a franchise agreement with British Mediterranean Airways to serve the routes instead. BA will withdraw from Beirut, Amman and Damascus after losing substantial amounts of money serving them. It resumed flights to Lebanon, Jordan and Syria in early 1995 but was permitted to fly only twice a week to Beirut and Damascus. The franchise deal, BA's 10th, will keep its logo in the region - British Mediterranean will fly BA's livery and its flight attendants will wear BA uniforms.
Except for what a U.S. official calls "a little bit of back and forth with the U.K.," U.S. negotiating efforts with the U.K. and Japan are all but dormant. The most immediate U.S. prospects are negotiations this month with Chile, on capacity limits for combination service set to expire in November, and Mexico, on technical issues connected to air taxi and charter service.
Gore Commission will have trouble coming up with aviation security recommendations as sweeping as the measure promised by President Clinton last week as he accepted the Democratic nomination for a second term. The U.S. will "search every airplane flying to or from America from another nation - every flight, every cargo hold, every cabin, every time," Clinton declared. In a more predictable step, "we will install the most sophisticated bomb detection equipment in all our major airports."
DOT extended by 30 days, through Oct. 1, its deadline for acting on Northwest's complaint against the government of Japan. The complaint, filed July 3, says Japan's refusal to allow Northwest to operate Seattle- Osaka-Jakarta service violates the current U.S.-Japan aviation agreement (DAILY, July 8). Northwest asked DOT to impose sanctions on Japan by prohibiting JAL's Hiroshima-Honolulu services and canceling its twice- weekly flights to Brazil via Los Angeles, operated with local traffic rights between Los Angeles and Sao Paulo.
Fast Air Carrier is seeking an exemption to serve Buenos Aires as an additional intermediate point on its service between Chile, via intermediate points Bogota and Panama City, and co-terminal points Miami and New York. Planning to operate 14 flights to Buenos Aires during the coming year, Fast Air will use its own DC-8-71F aircraft or a 747 aircraft wet-leased from an authorized U.S. carrier. Fast Air currently operates four weekly roundtrip flights each week on the route. (Docket OST-96-1667)
ValuJet in all likelihood will be back in the air this month albeit in a much abbreviated, organizationally changed version. But most other aspects that defined the carrier - its type of service, fares, look and name - will remain the same. At a news conference late Thursday following FAA's return of the airline's operating certificate, President Lewis Jordan said it is "entirely conceivable" the carrier will resume operations in less than 30 days, but he declined to offer more information, such as which four cities it will serve from Atlanta.
General Electric Aircraft Engines and Pratt&Whitney unveiled their joint engine for Boeing's large derivatives of the 747 - the GP7176, the 76,000 lbst. launch of the proposed GP7000 turbofan family and the first product of the newly formed GE-P&W Engine Alliance. In materials prepared for release yesterday at the Farnborough Air Show, the unlikely allies outlined plans for an engine series ranging from 70,000 lbst.
Boeing Commercial, issuing its latest specifications for prospective 747- 500X/600X derivatives, believes Airbus Industrie's forecast of a 20-year market for 1,380 aircraft seating 500-plus passengers is much too optimistic and may be self-serving, according to Boeing Commercial President Ron Woodard.
United and Northwest will recruit at Avjobs '96, the Future Aviation Professionals of America-sponsored jobs event, Sept. 20-21 in Atlanta. FAPA said other airlines planning to recruit pilots, mechanics, engineers and others include Airborne Express, United Parcel Service, American Eagle, Amerijet International, Atlantic Coast, Southern Air Transport, McDonnell Douglas and Wichita Aircraft Recruiting, which recruits for Boeing Mod Center, Cessna, Raytheon and Learjet. For more information, call FAPA at 800-538-5627, ext. 190.
All Nippon Airways, which had planned to begin transpacific code-share flights with Delta last weekend, expressed frustration that the stalled U.S.-Japan aviation talks have delayed indefinitely its attempts to begin new service to the U.S. On Sept. 1, ANA was to have begun 13 weekly flights between Tokyo and Los Angeles, and it planned to offer joint direct service from New York, Portland and Honolulu to Osaka Kansai Airport.
If Italy is a bellwether, look for a spate of startups as Europe approaches next April's aviation liberalization. No fewer than six new airlines have started in Italy in the last year and a half. Most are regional carriers, including Dornier 328 operator Minerve Airlines, domestic carrier Noman, Rome-Milan specialist Air One, former air taxi Alpi Eagles, de Havilland Dash 7 operator FAR Airlines and, most recently, Azzura Air, a BAe 146 operator based in Bergamo, near Milan.
As American and its pilots inched toward a contract agreement and away from an impasse last week, National Mediation Board Chairman Kenneth Hipp joined the negotiations. The last counterproposal from management heard by The DAILY included increasing to two the number of full-size jets American would have to buy for each regional jet it bought for Eagle in excess of a fleet size of 628. American also proposed a 27% wage cut, down from 30%, for pilots flying a new short-haul operation.
